It’s a pressing question after the Canucks revealed Monday that the left winger wasn’t feeling well after Saturday’s game in Denver. He didn’t accompany the NHL team here Sunday and still wasn’t feeling right Monday. He flew to Vancouver to be examined by a doctor.

Baertschi took a shift in the final minute of a 5-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche, so it’s unlikely he suffered an obvious injury. He missed 30 games earlier this season with a concussion on an unpenalized head shot when he had his back to Golden Knights forward Thomas Hyka on Oct. 24 in Las Vegas. It was the fifth concussion of his hockey career.

The Canucks didn’t want to surmise that playing in the thin air of Denver or game contact may have somehow triggered post-concussion symptoms such as headaches or dizziness.

Baertschi absorbed defensive-zone hits from Nathan MacKinnon in the first period and Ian Cole in the third on Saturday and also dished out a defensive-zone hit on Gabriel Landeskog in the opening frame. Would any of that have anything to do with the possibility of symptoms as opposed to a visible blow to the head to trigger a concussion?

“We don’t know that yet and I don’t want to speculate until he sees the doctor and we know exactly what’s going on,” said Canucks general manager Jim Benning. “He just wasn’t feeling right and we’re just in the preliminary stages of finding out (why).

“He didn’t feel well enough to travel yesterday (Sunday), so he’s flying home today and will see a doctor tomorrow (Tuesday) and hopefully we’ll have a better answer after that. I really don’t have anything else on it right now — I just know that after the (Saturday) game he wasn’t feeling well.”

Canucks coach Travis Green said Baertschi didn’t suffer a concussion Saturday. But that’s not to say he could have been feeling some symptoms post-game as opposed to taking a significant hit that caught everybody’s attention.

“It’s not a concussion,” said Green. “He just didn’t feel good.”

Baertschi endured a significant post-concussion setback Nov. 17 — including sensitivity to light and dizziness — while skating to elevate his heart rate in the next recovery phase after the Oct. 24 blow. The 26-year-old Bern, Switzerland, native, who signed a three-year, US$10 million contract extension July 1, is wary of the cumulative effect and susceptibility to repetitive concussions and the symptoms. He has managed eight goals in 22 games this season.

If there’s something wrong of significance — and Baertschi is placed on Injured Reserve — the Canucks could recall a forward from the affiliate Utica Comets in New York. Zack MacEwen has 16 goals in 47 AHL games, but is a right-shot winger, while left-shot Reid Boucher has 19 goals in 36 games.

Tim Schaller, who has sat out the last three games and 13 of the previous 18, replaced Baertschi on a line with Bo Horvat and Josh Leivo on Monday against the Philadelphia Flyers. Green passed on Markus Granlund, who was scratched Saturday for the first time this season when Nikolay Goldobin returned to the line after sitting out four-straight games and six of the previous nine.

“I want the bigger body,” Green said of Schaller, who hasn’t scored in his 34 games this season after putting up a dozen goals with the Boston Bruins in 2017-18. “He’s big, strong and good on the forecheck, and I thought that was a big part of our game the other night (Saturday).

“I’d like to see Bo with some high-skilled wingers to be honest and I think Leivo has done a good job and we had Baertschi there last game. Bo and Leivo are big bodies and both skate well.”

Does Schaller trump Granlund? We’re going to find out.

“It’s not like we sat there and it was an easy decision,” added Green. “I thought Schaller was playing well the two games before we took him out and I told him that. I told him they were two of his better games and he was coming out. Sometimes as a coach, you’ve got to tell players that. You just don’t play because you’re not playing well. He deserves to go back in.”

If Schaller can make some sort of an impact — Granlund has eight goals and 17 assists — then it could help keep this four-game trip on track. The Canucks get the Stanley Cup-champion Washington Capitals in the second half of back-to-back games Tuesday and then face the rejuvenated Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday.

“This is a great test for us,” Horvat said of the stretch drive that had the Canucks in the second conference wild-card spot heading into Monday’s matchup. “It begins now and you’ve got to act like every game matters. Schaller and I have had success on a line before and he’s a big body down low and he’ll bring that presence for us.”

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